Gavin McCoy Leaves Smooth Radio

London’s Smooth Radio programme controller, Gavin McCoy, has been made redundant after just 18 months in charge of the station.

McCoy has left the station as part of a management restructure, following former Global Radio executive Paul Fairburn’s arrival earlier this year as station director.

GMG Radio released a statement saying: “London’s Smooth Radio has undergone a restructure of its programming management team. As a result of the changes the programme controller’s role held by Gavin McCoy has become redundant.”

Fairburn is expected to take responsibility for the strategic management of the on-air sound at 102.2 Smooth Radio in addition to his current duties.

Fairburn has previously managed regional stations including Heart 100.7 and 106.2, Magic 828 and Galaxy 102.2 as well as digital platforms at Global Radio.

McCoy joined the Smooth London station in February last year and was in charge of recruiting a number of big name presenters to the station, including Tony Blackburn and GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips.

Overall, Smooth Radio experienced a year on year increase in its weekly reach of around 18.1% in the latest Rajar release, giving it a total reach of 2.7 million national listeners (see BBC Radio 2 Weekly Reach Declines But Still On Top).

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